meiha

In my opinion, this decision was a step in the right direction and a solid compromise between different viewpoints. I would have personally left the silver Stick 'Em Up and Truculence abilities available. I have a small concern that this change might actually lead to even more passive defending than ban on all X-Factor abilities would. My reasoning: One-timers will once again become very high-probability scoring chances, as will close-range shots with the Close Quarters trait. At the same time, taking away the most effective defensive tools for pressuring puck carrier may leave the best option as simply falling back into a defensive structure, trying to intercept passes to one-timers, and keeping opponents away from the net to prevent Close Quarters goals. I hope my concerns turn out to be wrong and that other defensive abilities provide alternative ways to pressure puck carrier, or that the "pressure system" ensures pressuring the puck carrier remains viable. The good thing is that now there are only two ability slots available, so if you want to pick a defensive ability, you can’t take both 1T and CQ boosts. I’m happy with this decision! 👍

My thoughts after the GCL Regular Season. The way teams play has not changed much, at least not yet. Fast players are still the key factor. Maybe nothing will change that meta ever. What has changed for me is the feeling of what happens in the game. Events feels to have more natural and skill based reason for why it happens. It can be a mistake or a good play that leads to a goal or something else on the ice. Of course, these things have always been there, but with X-Factor abilities, it often felt like something happened because of that special ability. There were many different types of goals in these games, both earned and lucky. One-timer is still an effective way to score. Those are just a bit more rare than with x-factors, in a good way. Overall, the game feels much more natural in a positive way.

I truly agree with you on that especially these shooting perks create positive aspects regarding how the game is played. At the same time, I also think they create the problem that the game must be played in a specific way to succeed, making it repetitive and dull to watch and play. That's why I'm looking forward to these tournaments where these features are not in use. Will they change the game in the direction I believe. It might be that one tournament is too short a time to see these effects if players are not ready to experiment new things. That remains to be seen. I have nothing against these special abilities, even I think they are unnecessary. I just think they are poorly integrated into the World of Chel game mode. Some of them are just too obvious to use. If I were a game developer, I would make them less obvious by adding a downside to them. For example, if you want to use a gold 1T perk, your speed could decrease by 5 points or something, with the silver perk having a smaller penalty. That way, you could decide whether it's worth using the gold, silver, or no special ability at all. This would make them a bit rarer and might create more space for other player types aswell. This would be closer to playing without perks while still having them in the game. Sorry for the slight off-topic thinking!

Can someone with knowledge of game mechanics explain the difference between the gold 1t perk and the silver 1t perk, as well as the same for Close Quarters? Are they comparable in some way? For example, is an 85+ shooting attributes with a silver 1t perk comparable to a gold 1t perk with low shooting attributes? Please don't say that the gold 1t perk is must-have to score goals.

Could it be that good goalies read the game well and when people have used to use these perks, their habit is to look one-timers everytime or other chances that gives the reward with perks. It makes things easier from goalie perpective in my opinion. Should goalies be rewarded aswell if they are really good? Perhaps there is a need to find different ways to score goals, be more unpredictable?

I utilize speed to fix my positioning issues. It requires skill to position myself and anticipate situations at a slower pace. If I can't learn that, then I'll just have to bang my head against the wall when I don't get rewarded for good scoring chances with poor shooting ratings. However, in my opinion, this would at least bring the much-needed variety to the game.

Why is reducing speed not an option? Is it something that people don’t want to do, or is it mandatory at the highest level? If players who focus on shooting have to give up their speed, then not everyone else should have to be fast either. Golden perks does not need any level from ratings.

But is it real variation or just cosmetic? You can equip the Truculence perk and allocate points to stick checking. You can take the Stick Checking perk and put points into hitting ability. You can choose a Shooting perk and assign points to speed, and so on...

And I say that the game is broken. If the game offers countless possibilities for different player types, but only a handful are viable, then something is not right in my opinion. The problem, at least as I see it, comes from the fact that, as you said, you can balance things with special abilities. You can balance your shooting ability without having to give up your speed. And you can also balance other weak abilities with special skills. This leads to a situation where every player on the ice is very close to being a copy of one another. I don’t hate the players for this, I hate the game. But if there is at least a hypothetical way to fight against this nonsense created by the developers, I would take that opportunity every time. And if large communities stop exploiting this nonsense, there is a small chance that the developers will abandon it in the future.

I’m really struggling to believe that the game developers have concluded that an 80 shooting power rating and a single trait are a better option for scoring goals than 90+ shooting attributes. I’m not saying that isn’t the case because I don’t have enough knowledge of the game mechanics. If that’s really the truth that shooting perks are must-have, I might just have to delete the entire game from my console.

What kind of good scoring chances are being discussed that don't go in without traits? One-timers from a longer distance? As a lower-level Tapani myself, I experience many good scoring chances where these traits don't even activate, and the puck still goes in, even with bad shooting attributes.

In my opinion, the idea that top level players know what is best is flawed. Everyone’s approach to this discussion should be about what is best for SportGamer as a product. What would bring more players, followers, and viewers to the community/product, and what would engage existing players. Separating the top level from the rest is, in my view, the wrong approach. If the opinion of the majority does not align with that of the top level, the top level will lose its appeal, which is bad for SportGamer. After all, the money for top level rewards also comes from the masses.

My belief is/was that shooting abilities have effect. However, if this is not the case, it does not make sense to ban all the traits. If you cannot be an effective goal scorer for your team by increasing/maximizing your shooting attributes, everyone will choose speed instead of shooting. Shooting abilities are important because they are in same category with skating abilities, meaning players must somewhat choose between them. This could also give more chance for bigger player types. Luckily, now there will be tournaments where all traits are banned, so we can gain more experience on this matter.

Ok, good to know. If attributes (especially shooting attributes) actually does not matter much, I'll have to rethink my opinion about banning all traits. Thanks 👍

Could be, I don't know. Things needs to be tested. You may have more experience on the matter than me, but have your tried to play games without X-factor/Superstar abilities with player build where you have allocated the skill points to shooting abilities so that they are a way over 90 each and you still can't score?